Weather Preparedness
 

This thread is for discussing awareness and exchanging weather preparedness ideas. High energy prices mean there's little or no room in any budget for such events anymore. That raises the stakes, which is why this discussion is more important than ever: How have you prepared? What would you do? If you're a permanent resident of somewhere else nearby, would you choose your lake home as your storm shelter, or stay home? If you're a lake resident, how would you use that to your advantage, or would you flee somewhere?

Some realistic "What if" scenarios to inspire responses (add your own, if it's not here):

1. Another record snow season occurs - past record snow seasons have often occurred in back-to-back winters. Or what if we are entering a several-year period of very heavy winters? As many public budgets are discovering, it costs a lot to run a snowplow when diesel is $4 a gallon, and the cost of road repairs is also closely tied to the price of oil.

2. A major hurricane severely damages offshore oil rigs and coastal oil refineries, like Hurricane Katrina did, causing a huge spike in gas prices from what they are now. This scenario assumes the storm doesn't actually hit New England, but its effects on gas prices would require a lot of people here to have a contingency plan -- quickly. Hurricane Katrina drove up gas prices by $1 or more in just a matter of days. If enough of the supply is interrupted by the hurricane, gas stations could run out of gas, like in the 1970s.

3. A major volcanic eruption causes the average worldwide temperature to drop for a couple of years, resulting in crop failures and very cold winters. This occurred last in 1991, when Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines blew up. In 1815, New England had July and August snowfall during the worldwide "Year Without A Summer," which was caused by the eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia.

4. New England finally gets another Hurricane of 1938 after all these relatively quiet years. The '38 storm caused a lot of landslides in the White Mountains, and there was lots of wind damage throughout NH.

5. There's a severe tornado. This year has been producing an incredibly large number of tornadoes nationwide. So did the tornado season of 1953, which produced the F-4 (borderline F-5) tornado that tore across the whole length of Worcester County, Mass, devastating everything in its path including a portion of the city of Worcester. New England averages a handful of weak tornadoes every year, usually not exceeding F-1. Meredith had one in 2004, and it became a waterspout over Meredith Bay.

It's not fun to think of the "What if" when the sun is shining, but it's even less fun to get caught off-guard. The fact that energy prices are high has upped the stakes a lot because it costs more to prepare, clean up, and rebuild.

Again, this thread is all about helping each other think ahead and follow the scout motto of "be prepared."

Be prepared? I think I'm scared! Seriously, CLA has the right viewpoint. I live in an old farmhouse with a wood cookstove. We always bought the wood, seasoned, in the fall. This year, we have already bought some green wood, and will get more by the end of the month, all that we'll need for next winter. I'm trying to think ahead, just imagining what they will be getting for wood this fall. Maybe we should all get those freezers like your aunt used to have in the basement, and stock up on stuff on sale. Seasonal produce, too. Your thread has got me thinking..........